Reimagining Human Connections: Technology and innovation in education at the World Bank

Education systems, especially in low- and- middle-income countries, face many daunting challenges. 53% of 10-year old children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a short paragraph, a figure that rises to over 80% in the poorest countries. 258 million students are out of school, including 59 million children of primary-school age. The situation is even worse in communities afflicted by conflict and violence. Girls and children with special educational needs are particularly being left behind. This learning crisis has been exacerbated by the health and economic crisis of COVID-19 (in the most pessimistic scenario, COVID-19- related school closures could increase the rate of 10-year old children who cannot read and understand a short paragraph in the low- and middle-income countries by 10 percentage points, from 53% to 63%).

The World Bank supports the appropriate, cost-effective use of EdTech (Education Technology) at all levels of education and supports countries in expanding access and improving quality, both inside and out of the classroom – so that education reaches all students. 

The World Bank advocates attention to five key principles when education systems invest in EdTech:

1. ASK WHY: EdTech policies and projects need to be developed with a clear purpose, strategy and vision of the desired educational change.

2. DESIGN AND ACT AT SCALE, FOR ALL: The design of EdTech initiatives should be flexible and user-centered, with an emphasis on equity and inclusion, in order to realize scale and sustainability for all.

3. EMPOWER TEACHERS: Technology should enhance teacher engagement with students through improved access to content, data and networks, helping teachers better support student learning.

4. ENGAGE THE ECOSYSTEM: Education systems should take a whole-of-government and multi-stakeholder approach to engage a broad set of actors to support student learning.

5. BE DATA-DRIVEN: Evidence-based decision making within cultures of learning and experimentation, enabled by EdTech, leads to more impactful, responsible and equitable uses of data.